Border Czar Tom Homan’s CAVA bag bribe investigation came as a pre-inaugration surprise to Donald Trump—due to the then-incoming president’s own refusal to allow the FBI to background check his nominees, MS NOW reported Tuesday.

Trump learned just days before taking office that the FBI had footage of Homan accepting $50,000 in a paper CAVA bag last year from two agents undercover as private contractors purportedly trying to get in with the new Trump administration.

Justice officials were initially worried that Homan wouldn’t be able to get a security clearance, but when he did, federal prosecution planned to monitor him during his time as border czar to see if he continued to move corruptly. But the probe was eventually dropped by Kash Patel’s FBI—even as Justice Department internal documents pointed to proof of Homan’s CAVA bag bribe.

This wouldn’t have happened if 1) Homan wasn’t so easy to bribe and 2) Trump had actually given the FBI a list of appointees to background check after his election victory in November, like nearly every president does. Trump didn’t agree to send that list until December 3, and when he did, it was incomplete. Now, the White House has been forced to fully defend Homan while ignoring the fact that the federal government was actively investigating him for bribery.

“This was a blatantly political investigation, that found no evidence of illegal activity, and was yet another example of how the Biden Department of Justice was using its resources to target President Trump’s allies rather than investigate real criminals and the millions of illegal aliens who flooded our country,” White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “Tom Homan is a career law enforcement officer and lifelong public servant who is doing a phenomenal job on behalf of President Trump and the country.”

Washington has a lot more demolition on the menu if the Trump administration gets its way.

The president is eyeing another major project in the nation’s capital, planning to destroy some 13 historic buildings on the grounds of St. Elizabeths in order to expand facilities for the Department of Homeland Security, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

St. Elizabeths was the first government psychiatric hospital, erected in 1855 and formerly known as the “Government Hospital for the Insane.” It was designated a national landmark in 1990. But earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought emergency approval to destroy it, alleging that the site had become a safety hazard for her agency.

Some of the buildings currently at risk of facing a wrecking ball include the 1891 addition of Burroughs Cottage, which was constructed by a wealthy couple to house their daughter and her nursing staff. At St. Elizabeths’ height, the sprawling campus housed more than 8,000 patients and was also the location of a nursing college. But the vast acreage of St. Elizabeths has since been reclaimed for government purposes. Over the last 15 years, DHS has occupied a significant portion of St. Elizabeths’ West Campus, while the East Campus remains under the control of the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health.

In a December 19 memo to the General Services Administration, Noem claimed that the buildings warranted a complete demolition on the basis that they “constitute a present risk to life and property.” She argued that the vacant buildings could be utilized by a shooter attempting to attack Homeland Security agents.

“Demolition is the only permanent measure that resolves the emergency conditions,” Noem wrote.

Preservationist groups were given just three days to respond to Noem’s request, and respond they did. Organizations fighting for the buildings’ ongoing conservation argued that Noem’s filing was “problematic,” and that if the buildings on the campus were deemed unsafe, then it was the DHS’s fault for failing “to effectively secure them.”

“A unilateral declaration like this is problematic because it bypasses the procedural safeguards designed to ensure stability, legitimacy and fairness,” read a letter jointly signed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the D.C. Preservation League. The two groups, writing to the GSA, further argued that Noem’s concerns “imply a fundamental flaw” in her agency’s “security as a whole.”

But the Trump administration is no stranger to steamrolling historic sites, even without the proper approval. After promising Americans in July that his ballroom proposal would “be near but not touching” the White House East Wing, Donald Trump completely razed the FDR-era extension in October, plowing forward without prerequisite approval from the National Capital Planning Commission or the express permission of Congress. Conveniently, Trump started demolition during the government shutdown, when the commission was consequently closed.

The Kennedy Center has been forced to cancel their annual New Year’s Eve concert as more artists pull out to boycott President Donald Trump changing the historic venue’s name to the “Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” 

Jazz supergroup The Cookers announced Monday that they wouldn’t be performing on New Year’s Eve. 

“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the band said in a statement, refusing to name Trump but alluding to their reasoning for pulling out. “We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it.”

One member of the group, saxophonist Billy Harper, had already made his feelings more clear. 

“I would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing,” he said in a previous interview. “After all the years I spent working with some of the greatest heroes of the anti-racism fight........

© New Republic